Protests aren’t there to be quiet and unobtrusive - they are there to make people in power uncomfortable. Cruz is a person in power. He’s being made to feel uncomfortable.
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Yeah, I meant that it is more important for the consequences to be personalised, as in, when you see Ted Cruz (or whoever), let him know what you think of him.
This has a faint tang of “hey, I want to be in one of those restaurant protest videos! Alexa, who is an unpopular politician who dines near me?” It will quickly reach a point where being protested at restaurants is like being splashed at SeaWorld, i.e. avoidable pantomime.
No, that’s bless your heart…
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Sort of like that childish nonsense of refusing to move to the back of the bus?
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Maybe the worst part is all of the other patrons in the restaurant who were suddenly told that they were dining with Ted Cruz and suddenly their meals don’t taste good and their stomachs feel queasy.
Or maybe they were already feeling that and were confused as to why until the protesters showed up. It’s hard to tell where the source is when you are in an invisible aura of malignance.
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It is worth asking whether we want restaurants that kick people out whom the owners dislike – I think we don’t. We’ve seen where denial of service based on personal views leads, and it isn’t really a great place.
On the other hand, I think it’s a good thing that individuals are taking it upon themselves to speak truth to power, right to their faces, in public places… So, really, the restaurant behaved perfectly. It allowed the people to make their protest, and then it asked them to leave. I doubt that anyone ballsy enough to protest in this fashion would be surprised or even disheartened to have to leave the restaurant afterwards. Just my 2¢
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I wonder if this sort of thing doesn’t cause their bubble to pop, even just a little bit. Normally they have their staffers to insulate them from this sort of feedback, but the staffers aren’t guarding the doors at the Applebees. They may not have a good idea of just how much the story has been spreading. It would be super easy to be insulated from most feedback when your scheduled is packed back to back with meetings and sessions.
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Yes, clearly the sustainable option is to let those in power rest in comfort and leisure.
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It will be interesting to see where this leads as it ratchets up in tone and frequency, and possibly becomes a tactic adopted by the right as well.
When you see this on the right it tends to involve less shouting and more gunfire.
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Classy. Very classy, and it will convince many, many people to their side.
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Its awesome that anti fascists are dictating to people where they can and cannot eat. “Waiter, I’ll have the irony plate as a starter.”
No. They are just making it uncomfortable for those who would destroy the rights of people not like them.
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EVERY tactic is not just an option but is mandatory when the person you dont agree with is an evil fascist, of course. It’s a moral imperative.
"If they won’t let us dream, then we won’t let them sleep… "
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Cruz made the choice to run for public office and to promote policies that are antithetical to human freedom. He is a Christian dominonist, whose platforms are indeed authoritarian in nature. He made the choice to promote that via public office. He just needs to suck it up and deal with it. No one hurt him or his wife, which is far more than I can say about the policies he regularly advocates.
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No-one’s dictating anything. Cruz is welcome to finish his meal to the accompaniment of people reminding him he’s a sexist. If that’s too much for him he can always eat at home (which means soup’s on!)
FTFY. Now I’ll wait for your hot take on the incivility of Nazi-punching.
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They can go where ever they please but, if I’m there they are going to know it. And the kitchen will know it too. Salivating no?
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Not right that Senator Cruz and his wife Heidi were surrounded and forced to leave a restaurant last night because of protesters. The Cruz family should be treated with respect.
yup. politics as normal.
politicians like cruz and 45, people on the alt-right – no matter how horrible their behavior – they all take advantage of people’s propensity to play by social norms.
when people are so far gone that they use their platform to further racist, homophobic, and misogynistic agendas – they don’t really deserve to be treated normally. yet most of us do so anyway.
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The best protest tactic is the one that your adversary can’t effectively mirror, or that you’re OK with them mirroring.
A women’s march? Great choice! The deplorable misogynists would be hard-pressed to match the turnout.
Door-to-door canvassing and get-out-the-vote efforts? OK, we’re fine if the other side does this too: that’s just how democracy works.
Hounding people out of restaurants? Terrible idea! The extreme right practically owns the patent on this tactic, and nobody can do it better – or more enthusiastically – than them. Re-normalizing this tactic makes it more likely it will be used by the other side, and, worse yet, gives them a claim to the moral high ground (“they started it!”).
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